“I can use the next season.” It was coach Jeon Hee-chul’s view of the Asian Quarter in the Philippines, which created a new sensation in the league this season.
Seoul SK is the only team not using the Asian Quarter in the 2022-2023 SKT A-Dot Pro Basketball regular league. Seoul Samsung also had Christian David before that, although Justin Baltazar suddenly disappeared and the recruitment was canceled.
The Asian quota, which was limited to Japan, was expanded to the Philippines ahead of this season. Through this, Philippine national team Ronjay Avarientos (Hyundai Mobis), Lens Abando (KGC), and Sam Joseph Belrangel (Korea Gas Corporation) are playing for KBL. Lee Seon Albano (DB) is also a Filipino player enough to stimulate domestic guards. Goyang Carrot owns Japanese player Hisashi Moriguchi.
SK had restrictions on recruiting the Asian Quarter. After winning the combined championship last season, Kim Seon-hyung immediately acquired free agent status and signed a new contract for a huge amount. Choi Jun-yong also won the regular league MVP and was about to acquire free agency qualification, so his salary increased significantly. This means that the salary cap pressure could not be avoided.
Even Lee Hyeon-seok, who coach Jeon Hee-chul evaluated as “knowing the way of basketball,” obtained FA qualification and transferred to Suwon KT. Coach Jeon Hee-chul, who said, “The first priority was to organize the internal power,” said, “Actually, I didn’t know much about the Filipino players, and I wasn’t satisfied. He added that he had no choice but to figure it out belatedly due to the team situation.”
The recruitment of the Asian quarter was until the 4th round, just like the trade deadline. Like SK, KCC, which exceeded the salary cap, recruited Calvin Epistola to supplement No. 1, but the condition of the contract was the minimum annual salary of 35 million Korean won. It meant that he had only hoped for the potential for growth, but his immediate competitiveness was not up to that of the Philippine national team. 메이저놀이터
SK also did a list-up before the Asian Quarter recruitment deadline, but that was it. Director Jeon Hee-chul said, “The conclusion was that it was better not to recruit in the middle of the road.”
This season, we did not recruit Asia Quarter, but we came up with an open ending for the next season. “Next season, (Asia Quarter) can be used.” Those were the words of director Jeon Heechul.
Of course, following last year’s offseason, this offseason also prioritizes cracking down on internal power. Along with Choi Jun-yong, who is considered the biggest player in SK, Choi Seong-won, Choi Won-hyuk, Yang Woo-seop, and Jang Moon-ho will acquire FA qualifications. As Choi Jun-yong and Choi Seong-won are also considered highly regarded resources in the free agent market, SK is likely to suffer from the salary cap pressure in the next season as well.
The recruitment of the Asian Quarter is also not unrelated to this. Depending on how much it is affected by the salary cap, the Asian quota resources that can be recruited will also show a big difference. As mentioned earlier, SK is a team with a lot of free agent resources, which is classified as a major player within the team. In addition to whether or not they remain, the level of recruitment of the Asian quota will be a point to watch SK’s next season with interest.